Recently at a regatta, I was in a collision and am wondering who is to blame.
Approaching the downwind buoy I was on a starboard tack almost dead downwind and did not have room to pass the buoy due to the presence of another boat to leeward of me. I requested buoy room and they had not problem bearing off a bit to give me room. With about 7 feet to spare between myself and the buoy, and maybe 3 feet between myself and the boat to leeward, I attempted to round the buoy and was focusing on not colliding with this boat when another boat on a port tack came out of nowhere and cut in front of me unexpectedly. I was completely unaware of the presence of this boat until I heard a "watch!" from them and less than a second later I collided with their port hull.
Now, I feel that since they were on a port tack the should have given me room and passed astern of me, but they claim that they jibed just before the collision and put themselves on a starboard, in which case we would have both been and a starboard tack and they would have been to windward and had established an overlap, so I would have had to give them buoy room. The only problem with that is that had we both been on a starboard, and if I would have given them buoy room, I would have collided with the boat leeward of me.
What ended up happening was that they cut right in front of me and my boat rode up on top of their "brand-new" port crossbar causing damage to my starboard hull (a puncture) and a scrape/dnet on their crossbar. My question is that I am interested in knowing what others would have done in this situation, bearing in mind that I was completely unaware that this boat was anywhere in the vicinity of me becuase I was focusing on the leeward boat giving me buoy room.
-thank you for your time and patience. <img src="http://www.catsailor.com/forums/images/graemlins/confused.gif" alt="" />
It's hard to picture this whole thing given the distances you mention (only 7 feet to bouy when the they crossed your bow). I have to assume that if you were going almost dead downwind the 7 feet was more from your bow to the mark than to the side?
But, first thing - if you entered the two boat length circle before they established overlap, they had no rights, port or starboard. So this to me is the important part. If you were going slow and they were heated up I wouldn't be surprised if you got there first and they came screaming in. But, this is something only you guys can answer.
The business of them jibing to starboard "just before the collision" sounds questionable. If you t-boned them, running up on their port crossbeam, I doubt very highly they had jibed unless you had turned up quite a bit to get to the mark (but given the distances mentioned, unlikely). With no mark involved, they would have been windward after the jibe, and still owed you rights (unless you're sailing ice boat rules). And even if they had acquired privileges through this jibe, they must give the newly burdened boat time/room to react.
You had a leeward boat you were contending with and could not head down - they put you in the position of deciding which boat to hit. I'm sure the leeward boat was visible to them if they were watching. If they truly had overlap early enough it would have been smart for them to call for room loud enough so both of you guys would know they were there. Seeing that room was going to be tight (how many of our boats fit in a 7 foot slot?), they needed to act to avoid the collision regardless of who had rights and throw a flag.
So, if they truly had overlap when you and the leeward boat entered the two boat lenght circle, they had rights but were required to avoid a collision. How much you could do given the leeward boat is questionable. Given the 3 feet between you and the leeward boat they close to getting hit twice... But it sounds like you could not fall off unless the leeward boat fell off, but since you t-boned him I don't think it would have made a difference.
If there was no overlap, then they are at fault all over the place.
